The handicap principle is one of the most influential ideas in evolutionary biology. It asserts that when there is conflict of interest in a signaling interaction signals must be costly in order to be reliable. While in evolutionary biology it is a common practice to distinguish between indexes and fakable signals, we argue this dichotomy is an artifact of existing popular signaling models. Once this distinction is abandoned, we show one cannot adequately understand signaling behavior by focusing solely on (...) cost. Under our reframing, cost becomes one—and probably not the most important—of a collection of factors preventing deception. (shrink)

How should we undertand the role of norms—especially epistemic norms—governing assertive speech acts? Mitchell Green (2009) has argued that these norms play the role of handicaps in the technical sense from the animal signals literature. As handicaps, they then play a large role in explaining the reliability—and so the stability (the continued prevalence)—of assertive speech acts. But though norms of assertion conceived of as social norms do indeed play this stabilizing role, these norms are best understood as deterrents and not (...) as handicaps. This paper explains the stability problem for the maintenance of animal signals, and so human communication, for we are animals too, after all; the mechanics of the handicap principle; the role of deterrents and punishments as an alternative mechanism; and the role of social norms governing assertion for the case of human communication. (shrink)

Deflationists reduce self-deception to a motivated bias, eliminating the need for doxastic tension, divided minds, intentions, or even effortful action. While deflationism fits many cases, there are others that demand more robust psychological processes and complexity. We turn to the empirical literature on self-handicapping to find commonplace examples of self-deception with high levels of agential involvement. Many self-handicappers experience non-trivial doubts, engage in strategic and purposive self-deception, and possess knowledge that must remain unconscious for their project to succeed. This occurs (...) with self-handicapping for the sake of self-esteem regulation. Such self-handicapping not only requires self-deception but also furthers it. (shrink)

La situation de handicap fragilise la construction du lien du parent à l’enfant. Une recherche menée auprès de sujets handicapés montre la diversité de la construction de leur lien et conduit à interroger les facteurs en jeu. Deux études de cas reprennent l’analyse des génogrammes des sujets, et permettent de discuter de l’effet du genre et de la limitation de la fratrie. L’approche familiale laisse entrevoir des facteurs de remaillage du lien. Ces résultats permettent d’envisager de nouvelles modalités d’accompagnement.

Si la notion de handicap ne cesse de progresser sur les plans tant déontologique que descriptif, l’évolution des mentalités, elle, reste en retard. La réalité du handicap génère toujours peurs et représentations contradictoires au sein de notre société. Le regard porté sur cette différence stigmatise et plonge les sujets dans des modalités relationnelles complexes. Être parent d’un enfant en situation de handicap, c’est porter une part de son stigmate. L’interaction entre le social et le familial produit des (...) tensions qui deviennent de véritables conflits psychiques au sein du groupe familial. L’article explore les mécanismes sociopsychologiques en œuvre. Il semble que certains parents vont progressivement, sous l’effet conjoint de leur propre histoire infantile et des messages sociaux concernant le handicap, mettre en place des mécanismes défensifs principalement marqués par l’évitement du lien à l’autre. (shrink)

L’auteur s’appuie sur le travail de F. André, L’enfant insuffisamment bon (1985), pour explorer l’idée que le handicap et la souffrance qu’il procure à son contact met en question l’identification humaine sur un plan familial et sociétal et entraîne des mécanismes d’indifférenciation entre l’humain et le non-humain, le vivant et le non vivant. Situés dans un mouvement protecteur au départ, ces mécanismes aggravent ensuite les effets du handicap au sein des familles ou des établissements spécialisés en empêchant le (...) développement de la sub-jectivité de chacun. Pour le comprendre, l’auteur expose deux exemples de thérapies familiales psychanalytiques, l’un dans le cas d’une enfant gravement handicapée (atteinte neurologique et psychose symbiotique), et l’autre dans le cas d’un enfant dont le handicap se trouve majoré par les éléments trans-générationnels réactivés à sa naissance et dont il va se retrouver porteur. (shrink)

The Handicap Principle represents a central theory in the biological understanding of signaling. This paper presents a number of alternative theories to the Handicap Principle and argues that some of these theories may provide a better explanation for the evolution and stability of honest communication.

It is very tempting to try to reconcile perception and cognition perceptual symbol systems may be a good way to achieve this; but is there actually a perception-cognition continuum? We offer several arguments for and against the existence of such a continuum and in favor of the choice of perceptual symbol systems. One of these arguments is purely theoretical, some are based on PET-scan observations and others are based on research with handicapped subjects who have communication problems associated with cerebral (...) lesions. These arguments suggest that modal perceptual symbols do indeed exist and that perception and cognition might have a common neuronal basis; but perceptual and cognitive activities require the activation of different neuronal structures. (shrink)

À quoi ressemble la sexualité des hommes handicapés moteurs? Comment gèrent-ils les contraintes imposées par leur corps handicapé? C’est à travers un ensemble de données (entretiens et données documentaires) que l’article décrit ce qu’ils en disent eux-mêmes. Analyser cette sexualité à partir du concept de « scripts sexuels » permet de comprendre comment l’impossibilité de coller aux normes leur permet de s’en détacher pour construire un répertoire personnel de scripts adaptés à leurs possibilités corporelles et à celles de leurs partenaires. (...) Leur sexualité récréative emprunte à des répertoires variés, dont ceux d’autres groupes minorisés. Elle est marquée par la négociation entre les partenaires de la symbolique des parties du corps ou des pratiques, la souplesse des rôles masculins et féminins, la réciprocité. L’objectif du rapport est souvent la « connexion » entre les partenaires dans un plaisir qui se nourrit du plaisir de l’autre. Non prise en compte dans les recherches habituelles, la sexualité récréative des hommes handicapés moteurs ébranle les normes et montre un potentiel subversif. (shrink)

Le handicap transforme la vie du couple et de la famille. La surcharge psychique qu’il implique pour tous les membres de celle-ci et les défenses mises en place révèlent les fragilités du couple et rendent nécessaires un travail d’élaboration, principalement de certaines collusions sur lesquelles s’était construit le couple. La régression de fonctionnement que le traumatisme provoque peut amener le thérapeute à se demander si ce fonctionnement révèle la structure du couple ou s’il est une défense. Ce fut en (...) tout cas l’hypothèse qui a soutenu le travail clinique dans le cas présenté. (shrink)

ABSTRACT Mentally handicapped people have been taken in philosophical work as an obvious exception to the canons which are applied to other, ‘rational’individuals. This paper argues that mentally handicapped people should be accorded the same rights as others. If there are human rights, then mentally handicapped people are entitled to them as humans; and if there are rights which apply in general to citizens, the same rights apply equally to mentally handicapped people. The argument for the inclusion of mentally handicapped (...) people as citizens is first, that there is a presumption of inclusion: if citizenship is accorded to all other individuals, there is no reason why citizenship should not be accorded to mentally handicapped people on the same basis as others. Second, mentally handicapped people cannot successfully be excluded without effectively challenging the presumption of inclusion applied to other groups. Third, and perhaps most important, there are positive reasons why mentally handicapped people, as a particularly vulnerable group, need to have rights to protect them against particular abuses. (shrink)

À travers la présentation clinique du cas de Caroline, une jeune femme sourde suivie en psychothérapie, ce texte réfléchit à la question de la triangulation, à ses spécificités et achoppements. Du fait des besoins spécifiques de l’enfant, la situation de handicap peut accentuer la situation de dépendance de l’enfant et prolonger la préoccupation maternelle. De même, le handicap sensoriel risque d’engendrer un retard dans l’adaptation des parents à leur enfant et de créer une vulnérabilité dans le lien aux (...) autres, notamment lors des séparations. Ces spécificités intensifieraient la menace de castration, fantasmatiquement attribuée au père, et favoriseraient la fixation à la mère. Une approche psychodynamique permet d’être attentif à la dimension défensive en jeu dans la mise au premier plan d’imagos parentales clivées, avec d’un côté une mère idéale, de l’autre un père qui focalise l’agressivité. (shrink)

The main purpose of this paper (1) is to draw attention to a gap between the principles of Common Law and the principles accepted by many leading medical practitioners on the ethics of allowing severely handicapped infants to die. The Common Law principles are shown in Court of Appeal judgements on two cases. The contrasting principles of many paediatricians were illustrated at the trial of Dr Leonard Arthur. The paper suggests that the gap could be closed by statutory guidance on (...) general principles. It also argues that utilitarian concepts misrepresent the ethical issues of medical dilemmas like this one. (shrink)

À partir d’une pratique clinique et de recherche, cet article traite de la parentalité dans le cas où le père et/ou la mère présentent une déficience cognitive. Il souligne que cette parentalité est négativement impactée par le regard social stigmatisant, des réseaux sociaux souvent retreints et des modalités d’accompagnement dont les normes sont peu compréhensibles et lisibles pour les parents. Face à cela, l’article propose : 1) de développer un travail conjoint entre normes des professionnels et normes des parents ; (...) 2) d’ouvrir davantage sur des situations de coparentalité ; 3) de favoriser les échanges entre parents ayant une déficience cognitive et avec eux le développement du partage d’expériences. Le partage d’émotions, d’affects, de rêves et de cauchemars devant commencer dès l’enfance. (shrink)

This paper discusses the handicapped child case and some other variants of Derek Parfit's non-identityproblem (Parfit, 1984) The case is widely held to show that there is harmless wrongdoing, and that amoral system which tries to reduce wrongdoing directly to harm (``person-affecting morality'')is inadequate.I show that the argument for this does not depend (as some have implied it does) on Kripkean necessity of origin. I distinguish the case from other variants (``wrongful life cases'') of the non-identityproblem which do not bear (...) directly on person-affecting morality as I understand it. And finally, I describe a respect in which the handicapped child case is puzzling and counter-intuitive, even on the supposition that it is a case of harmless wrongdoing. I conclude that the case is ``hard'': it will take more than the rejection of person-affecting morality to remove its puzzling character. (shrink)

This article explores the theme of the 2021 ALTER conference “norms questioned by disability,” by proposing a parallel with the process of questioning norms carried out by gender studies. After a contextualization of the role of norms in sociology and the link between the interrogation of norms and collective mobilizations, two examples of this approach are identified and illustrated by comparing gender studies and disability studies: naming the unthought (e.g. evidence of hierarchy, evidence of bicategorization), and specifying a presumed neutral (...) (by demonstrating the situated character of norms, concepts or characteristics associated with a dominant group and previously perceived as neutral or universal). Using examples from the fields of work, organizations and politics, similarities are pointed out between the modes of reasoning of the two fields of study. If disability studies have been able to benefit from a certain number of analytical achievements of gender studies, they can reciprocally offer new approaches for the latter, notably around the issue of constructivism. (shrink)

Dans le cadre de ses activités de consultation médicale en pmi et de ses missions de prévention et de protection de l’enfance, l’auteure analyse comment l’arrivée d’un enfant pour une mère porteuse de handicap vient questionner et ébranler les mécanismes défensifs mis en œuvre par son entourage et par elle-même autour du handicap. Par l’expression de ses propres besoins, l’enfant vient rompre le pacte dénégatif inconscient qui lie les membres de sa famille, et plus largement l’ensemble des personnes (...) en lien avec elle, dont les professionnels, aboutissant à de la maltraitance. Au-delà des mesures d’aide et de protection des enfants qu’elle impose, l’expression de la violence peut aussi devenir une occasion pour accompagner cette mère dans une réélaboration des liens familiaux où le handicap est reconnu à sa juste place. (shrink)

Two distinct forms of fairness in sport are regularly conflated, which produces confusion in important debates concerning the participation of transgender women in female sporting contests. The distinct forms of fairness arise in two distinct forms of sporting contest: the handicap contest and the championship contest. Handicap contests seek to ‘level the playing field’ by ensuring that all participants have an equal or ‘sporting’, chance of winning. Championship contests seek to find the person or team that is best (...) at a particular event – to find a champion. Each form of contest makes use of female categories, although for different reason. Arguments for and against the use of handicapping to ensure fairness in championship contests such as the Olympics conflate these forms of contest and their distinct accounts of fairness. (shrink)

This article presents the main results of a statistical survey carried out among disability advisors in the civil service in 2019. Through the many tasks they carry out, alone or in cooperation, disability advisors appear to be key players in the implementation of a policy of inclusion of people with disabilities in employment, which aims to go beyond the simple respect of quotas. However, these professionals express the need for better recognition of their function, in particular in terms of allocated (...) working time and access to training leading to a diploma. The survey shows that only one in four disability advisors is employed full-time in this function. Furthermore, although in nine out of ten cases, these professionals were already professionally integrated before taking on the role of disability adviser, three-quarters had never worked in the field of disability and only a minority had taken disability-related training. It is through practice, and in connection with networks, that the skills and the definition of the missions of a function called for to become more professional are built. (shrink)

It is unclear what we should make of a policy designed to eradicate' genetically based handicap, and in particular whether it constitutes discrimination against people with a genetic handicap. After brief reference to the legal position, four arguments are examined which purport to justify differential treatment of handicapped lives either before conception or before birth: the argument from genetic error', the argument from parental responsibility, the argument from social consequences and the argument from impersonal harm. Weaknesses are detected (...) in each of these arguments, and the conclusion is drawn that, although differential treatment of handicapped lives is sometimes justified, there are some circumstances in which it does amount to discrimination. (shrink)

The number of students with disabilities has increased by more than 900% in Québec universities Such an increase generates undue pressures on both the academic services available to that clientele and the personnel responsible for internships placement and supervision. In the past decade, a number of studies have attempted to make up for the lack of scientific knowledge on in-class support (measures to support the trainees.), and only a small number of studies worldwide, have focused specifically on accommodation in the (...) context of internships. This situation prompted the current researchers to conduct an exploratory research in partnership with university supervisors, field supervisors and internship coordinators. The research concentrated on three professional programs in order to highlight the specific challenges and issues supervisors must confront while providing support to students with disabilities. The study will eventually focus on testing the identified measures so as to assess their impact and help in developing required modifications. (shrink)

The health crisis due to the outbreak of Coronavirus since the beginning of 2020 has strongly exposed the effect of decades of public service cuts in France, especially in the fields of education or health. Although the French President has recently declared that the living conditions of people with disabilities were a “national priority”, this issue has not been addressed by public authorities while managing the current crisis. This article analyses and helps to understand the situation of young people with (...) disabilities living in student residences in lockdown for about two months, an issue that has been overlooked. The case study is based on a series of interviews with Joseph, a blind Master’s student, and some of his relatives. It looks back on Joseph’s experience and academic career, his living conditions in lockdown, his difficulties in coping with distance learning, as well as the resources and support he gets to be able to live and get through. (shrink)

This paper addresses issues in comparing nonhuman animals and severely disabled human beings in terms of their morally relevant characteristics. Through a discussion of the works of Jeff McMahan, Eva Feder Kittay and Martha Nussbaum, the paper offers a defense of the importance and possibility of extending care and compassion to nonhumans without collapsing relevant species differences.

This study investigated the associations between academic dishonesty, perceptions toward cheating and academic self-handicapping in 572 Greek University students using an online anonymous questionnaire. Latent profile analysis (LPA) was employed to form subgroups of students based on academic dishonesty – related constructs. The results showed that academic dishonesty was higher in males and among Sciences and Economics/ICT majors, and that it was associated with students’ perceptions and a pattern of dysfunctional academic behavior. Moreover, students majoring in Science and Economics/ICT reported (...) higher levels of witnessing a peer cheating, which was positively linked to academic dishonesty. LPA revealed three groups of students with low, medium, and high academic dishonesty-related variable scores. The implications of these findings for understanding how perceptions about cheating and academic self-handicapping are linked to academic dishonesty are discussed. The study also suggests some possible interventions to prevent and reduce academic dishonesty based on the emerged student profiles. (shrink)

The moral standing of involuntary sterilization has long been subject to debate but has only recently been looked upon with disfavor. When sterilization of a mentally handicapped minor is entertained, issues of eugenics, medical ethics, and legal precedent specially arise. Ethics consultants and ethics committees have been asked to consider such cases.

Book reviewed in this article: Families Against Society: A Study of Reactions to Chidren with Birth Defects. By Rosalyn Benjamin Darling The Unexpected Minority: Handicapped Children in America. By John Gliedman and William Roth.

Thirty Israeli disabled people were asked to describe their most memorable interactions with mass mediated images of disability as part of a tentative endeavor to delve into their reception patterns. Two stereotypes are discussed in this paper, namely the supercrip and the pitiful disabled. The interviewees seek examples to corroborate their belief that physical, social, and cultural obstacles can be overcome. Highly regarded supercrips embody one example as ‘regular’ people are especially coveted. Well-known, successful disabled people are put on a (...) pedestal for their demonstrated ability to triumph. This triumph is used to validate the disabled individual and to alter societal perceptions. Consequently, the wish to see disabled who ‘have done it’ is particularly intense while the pitiful disabled trigger antipathy because they reproduce and reinforce disabled people's inferior positionality and exclusion. (shrink)

Le handicap mental d’un enfant est la source de diverses souffrances très primitives. L’auteur développe l’hypothèse qu’une équipe doit contenir ces souffrances diffuses et peu représentables, qui entraînent tensions, insécurité et malaise dans l’entourage. Les équipes sont ainsi prises dans des positions de symbiose pathologique avec l’enfant et oscilleraient entre chronicité et activisme. Un exemple à propos « d’un enfant insupportable » montre que l’intervention clinique peut arriver à contenir ces souffrances et à modifier les alliances inconscientes éducateur-famille.

An examination of traditional sources for the Roman Catholic under-standing of marriage reveals that the ends of marriage might be ordered differently, given different contexts. This permits one working within that tradition to see marriage as a political and cultural entity existing independently of the individuals who participate in it. Marriage is also the standard with respect to which sexual activity is judged to be proper or not, a standard that applies to all human beings by virtue of their rational (...) nature. Understanding this allows one to understand how some people, including some of the mentally handicapped, might legitimately be prevented from marrying and even from engaging in genital sexual activity. It also allows one to solve some theoretical difficulties regarding contraception and homosexuality and connected with the fact that sterile couples cannot procreate and yet are permitted to marry. (shrink)

Background: This study aimed to examine magical ideation and absorption traits across non-clinical and clinical groups to determine their potential adaptive and maladaptive functions.Method: We enrolled 760 healthy participants from neighboring communities. Moreover, we recruited 318 patients, which included 25, 183, and 110 patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders, anxiety disorders, and mood disorders, respectively. Potentially adaptive and maladaptive sociocognitive functions were measured to determine the role of magical ideation and self-absorption in patients with psychiatric disorders.Results: The degree of magical ideation (...) and absorption gradually increased in the following order: anxiety disorders, mood disorders, and schizophrenia spectrum disorders. Furthermore, enhanced self-absorption-related enhanced consciousness traits were essential indicators of the presence of self-integration weakness in patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders.Conclusion: Magical ideation and psychological absorption may be considered as mental model construction functions, which result in both gains and handicaps in social adaptation. (shrink)

Dans l’espace public, le corps handicapé semble devenir public à son tour : on le touche, on contrôle ses déplacements et sa simple présence, on augmente enfin sa dépendance pour le forcer à être redevable des rares aménagements obtenus. Cet article propose d’analyser ces corps publics, leur statut d’anomalie dans la ville ainsi que les biopolitiques validistes et eugénistes qui les ciblent, s’accompagnant de discours handiphobes souvent internalisés.

L’affaire Perruche est désormais bien connue. Le 17 novembre 2000, la Cour de cassation siégeant en appel ordonnait l’indemnisation de Nicolas Perruche pour le préjudice constitué par le fait d’être né atteint du syndrome de Gregg, suite à une contamination par le virus de la rubéole, contractée par sa mère pendant la grossesse.Aussitôt les médecins, les associations de handicapés.

There are human beings whose psychological capacities are rivalled or exceeded by many non-human animals; such humans are often referred to as 'marginal cases'. R G Frey has argued that there is no secure, non-arbitrary way of morally distinguishing between marginal humans and non-human animals. Hence, if the benefits of vivisection justify such painful and lethal procedures being performed on animals, so is the vivisection of marginal humans justified. This is a conclusion Frey is driven to with 'great reluctance', but (...) which he can see no way to avoid. This paper points out a feature of the condition of marginal humans unnoticed by Frey and his critics: such humans have suffered a tragic harm. It points towards an analysis of this harm, in terms of counterfactuals holding for marginal humans but not for psychologically equivalent animals. Finally, it discusses the moral implications of the harm that such humans have suffered, and argues that it serves as the basis of a defence for preferring humans to non-humans in cases of morally inescapable conflict. (shrink)

This paper discusses the distinction between disability and handicap as it is proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO) in their publication International Classification of Impairments, Disabilities and Handicaps (WHO, 1993 (first published, 1980)). Following criticism of this an attempt to salvage the distinction by Nordenfelt (1993, 1983) is discussed. It is argued that neither the WHO nor Nordenfelt are successful in their attempts to preserve the distinction between disability and handicap in a theoretically wellmotivated manner. Contrary to (...) the WHO, it is argued that what they term ‘disabilities’ and ‘handicaps’ both have external causes. And contrary to Nordenfelt's position it is shown that “basic actions” do not provide a firm theoretical foundation for the concept of disability. Moreover, the criticisms of these two sets of views reveal that attempts to describe the phenomenon of disablement which focus on the individual suffer from a serious methodological shortcoming. (shrink)

ABSTRACT In this paper we compare philosophical and contemporary psychological approaches to mental handicap. Careful comparison between the disciplines reveals major differences and indicates that much further work is needed which would be fruitful for both sides. The two disciplines concentrate on different questions: philosophy tends to look chiefly at mental handicap in relation to issues of personhood and is not very clear about what mental handicap is; psychology on the other hand is much more specific about (...) mental handicap, but shows little concern with critically examining value issues. Our main intention is to explore the different ways in which mental handicap is defined and seen as a class. We conclude that class definition embodies a significant normative component and a large element of social construction. To ignore this and attempt to make normative judgements on the basis of class membership is thus highly problematic. Since within philosophy, these normative issues are often discussed in terms of personhood, this category is also critically examined and the conclusion is reached that it too has normative and social components which can lead to ethically dubious judgements being made about ‘the mentally handicapped’. (shrink)

The multiplication of rights— legally enforceable claims on the attention, actions, and resources of others—can carry us only so far. Improvements for the handicapped depend primarily on improving the attitudes of the nonhandicapped majority through appeals to conscience and good will.

The drawbacks of using the concepts of models in discussing the problems of disabled people are discussed. It is suggested that the terms “impairment”, “disability”, and “handicap” can unify the different models and enhance the position of people with disabilities in society.

The handicap principle has come under significant challenge both from empirical studies and from theoretical work. As a result, a number of alternative explanations for honest signaling have been proposed. This paper compares the evolutionary plausibility of one such alternative, the "hybrid equilibrium," to the handicap principle. We utilize computer simulations to compare these two theories as they are instantiated in Maynard Smith's Sir Philip Sidney game. We conclude that, when both types of communication are possible, evolution is (...) unlikely to lead to handicap signaling and is far more likely to result in the partially honest signaling predicted by hybrid equilibrium theory. (shrink)